


Anyone Can Fall (They Will Come When We Call)

by truethingsproved



Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo, Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-28
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2018-01-06 12:01:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1106571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/truethingsproved/pseuds/truethingsproved
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I can't have someone else in my head," she says shortly, pulling her hair a bit tighter than necessary. "Montparnasse and I were still connected when he--I can't have someone else in my head, Marshall. I'm sorry." She stands, moves to leave, but what she hears Valjean shouting after her is enough to make her freeze in place.</p><p>"Haven't you heard, Miss Thenardier?" he asks her retreating form. He doesn't ask with accusation in his voice--he understands. He's the only other pilot who's done what she has and lived to talk about it. He's lost what she's lost and more. He asks with conviction. "The world is ending. Where would you rather die?" She turns to face him again, and he extends his hand to gesture to the factory. "Here?" The next words send a chill up her spine as she imagines the feel of being connected to the great monstrosity of metal and machinery.</p><p>"Or in a Jaeger?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anyone Can Fall (They Will Come When We Call)

_"Ready to step into my head, kid?"_

_No one would have pegged Eponine and Montparnasse Thenardier as save-the-world types. They were the kids everyone overlooked, lost in the sea of the foster care system and only ever noticed when they were doing something wrong. There was something unique about them, though, something untouchable._

_They were fifteen when the first kaiju attacked San Fransisco, herding their other foster siblings away from the television while trying to watch and figure out what was happening. They were scared kids in Toronto, except that Montparnasse had this gleam in his eye that said, very clearly, that he knew they were destined for something greater. He crept into the room Eponine shared with Azelma that night, climbing onto the bed next to her and offering her a drag of his cigarette._

_"Fucking aliens," she said finally._

_Montparnasse nodded. "Yeah," he said, his voice soft. "This shit is real."_

\------

Working on the wall gives Eponine time to think, which is either a blessing or a curse or both. She's the only woman on the wall, and she remembers it every time she looks around. Her left arm isn't entirely healed these days, and she doubts it will be. The pattern from her suit is still seared into her skin, raised, jagged white scars against skin tanned by construction work.

The foreman tried not to hire her but she's the only one who always takes the most dangerous jobs and even with her half-ruined left arm and her scars and the sullen set of her mouth she's still a better worker than any of the men here, and she knows it.

She comes down from the wall it's to a news report. Sydney's been hit again, and it was a mere stroke of luck that the pilots behind Striker Eureka--a tall, lean woman named Javert who used to serve in the army before the kaiju made land, and her son, Grantaire, who took his dead father's last name after he was killed--hadn't left yet. Of course, Javert and Grantaire ripped it to shreds. When she gets downstairs it's to hear Grantaire talking to a reporter.

"We're on our way to Hong Kong. Big wig's orders. But I hope everyone watching this realizes that the Wall of Life program's a fucking joke." There are murmurs of discontent from the other workers around Eponine, and she forces herself not to look at the screen again. Her left arm aches and there's a hole in her heart when she thinks of her brother. But even if she turns around and walks away, she can't ignore the sound of the television. "Because they don't give a shit about the rest of you," Grantaire is sneering, angry and loud and like he's always been. "They only care about the rich, the ones they can move further inland and the ones who can throw their money around to get quality healthcare. You hear that? That's the sound of your world crashing and the people in charge letting it."

She walks through the crowd, pushing through them with her right hand, her left thumb hooked through the belt loop of her trousers and her shoulders hunched. One of the men follows her, asking if she's alright--she helped him out once when he started, tosses him any extra coupons she gets so that he can support a family with four kids when she's only one person, and since then he's been concerned about her.

There's a new sound, an entirely unexpected one, the sound of wind rushing around them and helicopter blades slicing through the air. She looks up in time to see the helicopter landing, the shocked faces of the men around her (the foreman's face is priceless), and when  _he_  steps down it's as if nothing has changed. Eponine forces herself not to snap into a salute as Jean Valjean steps forward, looking exactly as he did five years ago.

\------

_The voice over the intercom was loud and scratchy, and Eponine only picked up a few words as she woke up, slowly first, then immediately._

_"Montparnasse!" Eponine practically flung herself out of bed, pulling herself up to slap her brother lightly on the cheek; he groaned, swatting her hand away, before rolling out of bed. "C'mon, category three, code name: Knifehead."_

_"What time is it?" he asked, his voice husky with sleep and his eyes only half open._

_"Two," she said, almost gleeful, as she yanked a shirt on over the sports bra she wore to bed. Montparnasse scoffed._

_"In the morning?"_

_"Yeah. We're gonna kick some ass."_

_Montparnasse just yawned as Eponine clapped him on the shoulder, shrugging her off and stumbling towards the bathroom. She was already dressed by now, and she laughed, shrugging on the leather Lady Danger jacket he'd ordered her when they'd been assigned their Jaeger. They built her together from the ground up, designed her, knew her better than they knew anyone but each other, and Eponine was proud to wear something that tied her to the machine that was her life._

_"Hey, kid." Montparnasse paused, holding the door open to watch after his sister._

_"Yeah?"_

_His grin was infectious, giddy, and she knew that they'd be doing this forever if they had to, and they'd love it all the same. "Don't get cocky."_

_\------_

"Step into my office."

Eponine wonders if Valjean notices how different everything about her is now that she's lost her brother, her copilot, her other half. "It's been a long time," he says, and she can feel his eyes on her, boring into her, taking in the way she walks. Slightly hunched, both thumbs through her belt loops, her hands curled up against her hipbones, shoulders squared, head up defiantly as if she's challenging someone to say something. While she's working, her dark hair is pulled back in a braid, and she feels her hair swinging between her shoulderblades. Her jaw is square and set, teeth clenched ever so slightly, dark eyes inscrutable. She is a changed woman, a marked woman, and even without the scars visible, it's clear that she's been through war.

Valjean hasn't changed a bit, save the bags under his eyes. His black hair is cropped close to his skull and his shoulders are squared even more than hers, back erect, eyes taking in every detail silently. When he shakes her hand, his skin is warm on hers, and she wonders if there might be a hint of warmth in his smile as well.

"I've got a rebuilt Jaeger. Mach Three. I'm sure you know it well." Valjean looks at her as she perches on a slab of stone, running her fingers through her braid to brush it out before beginning to braid it again. After a moment's pause, he nods. "It's been a long time."

"Five years," Eponine responds, "four months."

"We need you piloting again."

"I'm guessing I'm not your first choice?" she asks, twisting her lips into a grimace, and the look Valjean shoots her is deadly.

"No," he tells her, his rich voice echoing, the solemn set of his mouth enough to kill the sarcastic retort just waiting on her tongue. "You weren't. But all the other Mach Three pilots are dead."

It's a slap in the face, a reminder that he knows exactly what he's asking of her, and that she can't do it.

"I can't have someone else in my head," she says shortly, pulling her hair a bit tighter than necessary. "Montparnasse and I were still connected when he--I can't have someone else in my head, Marshall. I'm sorry." She stands, moves to leave, but what she hears Valjean shouting after her is enough to make her freeze in place.

"Haven't you heard, Miss Thenardier?" he asks her retreating form. He doesn't ask with accusation in his voice--he understands. He's the only other pilot who's done what she has and lived to talk about it. He's lost what she's lost and more. He asks with conviction. "The world is ending. Where would you rather die?" She turns to face him again, and he extends his hand to gesture to the factory. "Here?" The next words send a chill up her spine as she imagines the feel of being connected to the great monstrosity of metal and machinery.

"Or in a Jaeger?"

\------

_Montparnasse looked good suited up. There was a sort of light behind his eyes, an indication that this was what he was made for, that he found where he was meant to be. He grinned as Eponine took her spot to his left, letting the others help them get hooked up to the massive machine._

_Lady Danger was their safe zone. It was where they could battle the monsters that were threatening to devour them, where they could fight the worst of the worst and come out on top. They were effortless in how they worked together. A familiar voice came over the intercom, rattling off jargon that even years into this war, Eponine still only understood peripherally. She knew that voice, though, and she beamed._

_"Jehan, my man."_

_She imagined Jehan grinning at his seat, three cups of coffee and a stack of bagels next to him, his hair slicked back and his clothes mismatched as ever in a strangely charming combination. "Greetings, Thenardiers."_

_"How'd your date with Floreal go last night?"_

_"Ah, she liked me. Her boyfriend, not so much."_

_Montparnasse laughed, rolling his eyes. "You're gonna get your ass kicked one of these days."_

_"Hey, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."_

_The playful banter is joined by a fourth voice, stern, grave, unmistakable. "Is Lady Danger ready to drop?"_

_"Marshall Valjean is on the floor," Jehan reported, and Eponine imagined him straightening up, abandoning his coffee, keeping the mirth from his voice. Valjean always frowned when they didn't take things seriously enough. "Initiating neural handshake."_

_No matter how many times they did this, it caught them off guard, and Eponine and Montparnasse fell back through their memories, shared and individual alike. Their arrival at the foster home, meeting one another, that first kaiju attack. Then, just as quickly, they were back at the present, staring forward, sharing a single mind._

_"We've got a category three kaiju headed towards Anchorage. Code name: Knifehead. You will keep it outside the miracle mile, then report back."_

_Eponine reached forward to tap at one of her screens, frowning. "Sir, the waters aren't cleared. There's still a boat there."_

_"Thenardier, you're protecting a city of three hundred thousand. You will not put this mission at risk for a vessel holding ten. Do I make myself clear?"_

_It was the hard call, the one that had to be made. Still, Eponine scowled. "Understood, sir." She tapped off the intercom, turning to look at Montparnasse. "You know what I'm thinking?"_

_"'Course I know what you're thinking," he insisted, rolling his eyes. "I'm in your head." He cocked one eyebrow, grinning. "Let's go._ "

\------

Eponine sits alone at the bar that night, nursing a beer over a span of hours. Most of her time is spent staring blankly at a wall, trying to remember just as hard as she's trying to forget. She reaches under the neck of her sweater, traces her fingers along the scars left behind when they pried her out of her battered suit. In some places, the patterns were burned into her skin, branding her; in others, she can practically still feel the sticky, warm wetness of her own blood as it oozed out and stained the snow.

The foreman takes a seat next to her. "So, Thenardier," he begins, looking at her in a way that makes her simultaneously furious and sickened. "You gonna be leaving us any time soon to go back to your useless tin cans?"

Eponine sets her jaw, teeth grinding, eyes fixed on the wall. The hand around her beer tightens, though the foreman doesn't notice.

When she doesn't answer, he guffaws. "How many Jaeger pilots does it take to change a lightbulb?" he asks the bartender, who looks nervously at Eponine before shaking his head. "None! Jaeger pilots don't change shit!"

If he opens his mouth to crack another joke, Eponine doesn't hear it. The blood is rushing in her ears and she stands swiftly enough that the stool falls from under her, clattering to the ground. It's only a moment, a single, shining moment in which she can practically taste the foreman's fear, before she has her hand fisted in his hair and she slams his head against the bar.

The room goes silent. Without a word, Eponine picks up her jacket and shrugs it on, slipping her thumbs through her belt loops and walking out the door.

\------

_It was a series of motions for Eponine, motions she'd gone through a hundred times both awake and asleep, motions that made her who she was. At her side, Montparnasse moved with her in perfect ease._

_It seemed so simple. They located the boat just as the kaiju was about to reach it--a fishing boat, filled with normal people just trying to survive in a world that wasn't suited for survival any longer. Scooping the boat into Lady Danger's massive hand, they deposited it somewhere only mildly safer, but far enough from the kaiju to have a shot at a safe getaway._

_Then, they turned their attention to Knifehead. Right away, Eponine should have known something was wrong. This was bigger, tougher than anything they'd ever fought, but the rush was too great and too overwhelming. She had nothing to fear, not in Lady Danger, not with Montparnasse by her side._

_It wasn't even that difficult to put the kaiju down. They beat it mercilessly, with Montparnasse hitting it over and over again as Eponine held it in place. On and on they went, hitting and shooting, getting thrown back only to stand again, upright as ever. The kaiju screamed in pain when they pulled back, only to fire at it, right in its center; it fell back into the water, unmoving, and Eponine and Montparnasse turned to congratulate one another on a job well done, only to be interrupted by Valjean's voice._

_"I thought I told you not to do anything with that ship."_

_"With all due respect, sir," Eponine reported, breathing heavily from the rush of the fight and the victory, "we saved everyone on that boat and in that city."_

_"Get back to base. Now."_

_"Yes, sir." Montparnasse's smile matched Eponine's, and they turned, ready to head back, sure that they'd done what they needed to, when Valjean's voice cut through the Jaeger again, this time panicked._

_"Lady Danger, get the boat and get out of there. The kaiju is still alive. Do you copy?_ Get out."

 _Their smiles fell and suddenly it was a race against time._  We can just keep fighting, _Eponine wanted to insist, but she knew it was in vain; they needed to get back, and try and hold the miracle mile. Keep the kaiju far enough away from the city until they got backup._

_The kaiju had other plans._

_Eponine screamed in pain, nearly collapsing when the kaiju grabbed Lady Danger's left arm and tore it away as if cutting through melting butter. Montparnasse turned to look at her, screamed her name hoarsely--the boat was gone, and forgotten, as Montparnasse tried to get to his sister and lift her up._

_"Eponine," he called, and it was the last thing she ever heard him say. The kaiju ripped through the side of the Jaeger, and Eponine watched, helpless, as it crushed everything in its grip and tossed it aside, her brother included._

_"Montparnasse!"_

_The rest was a blur. Whatever strength she'd ever had was gone now, but still, she reached up with her right arm, pounding at her screen until she'd taken control of the entire Jaeger. She swung up with her right arm, grinning almost savagely when she felt her clenched fist--Lady Danger's clenched fist--her clenched fist collide with the kaiju's jaw, and in a fit of fury she shoved her hand into the kaiju's mouth, grabbing the jaw and tearing it down, dislocating it before ripping it off entirely._

Montparnasse _._

_The kaiju let out another scream and Eponine jammed her open hand into the kaiju's abdomen, letting out blast after blast from her palm, obliterating its midsection as she did. It was over almost as quickly as it had begun, the kaiju fallen and her brother gone and Eponine alone in a metallic cage that rained sparks and wires._

_She felt herself starting to black out at that, stumbled forward towards the shore. Every step forward was agony. Blood trickled from her nose, the neural load too much for her to handle, but she didn't, couldn't stop. Her left arm hung limply at her side, and she dragged herself through the water, desperate to collapse._

_When she reached the shore, she fell to her knees, Lady Danger shuddering and shaking as she did the same and fell forward, yanking Eponine free of the wires connecting her to the Jaeger and throwing her with a loud crash. She lifted one shaking hand to pull her helmet away, only vaguely hearing the crash and thunk as it hit the floor, as she struggled to stand._

_Spots of black danced in front of her eyes. Climbing out of the wreckage of her Lady Danger was like clawing out of the belly of the beast; she felt blood blooming on her shoulder where she'd been injured, part of her suit cracked and knocked away, and her side was burned badly. Eponine stumbled forward onto the beach, struggling for air, struggling for sunlight, struggling to live, wanting to die._

_She heard voices above her, saw a man kneeling over her. Whispered a name, her brother's name, "Montparnasse" croaked from a ruined throat, and her eyes fell closed._

_\------_

She'd rather die in a Jaeger.

**Author's Note:**

> wowzers what a year
> 
> 2013 has been a hell of a ride, and it's thanks to you all. thank you forever and ever for welcoming me into this fandom, and for being so kind and loving and wonderful. this was prompted by inhumansandwiches on tumblr and was intended to be a drabble and whoops now it's three thousand words long and the first chapter of something that's promising to be several chapters long. OOPS.
> 
> for anyone curious, i imagined eponine as tatiana maslany (or, tmas playing sarah manning), montparnasse as max irons, and valjean as idris elba. forever thanks to maz, rachelmuffin, and rem for reading and betaing!! <3
> 
> feel free to drop by with any questions--my tumblr url for my personal is whitequeentheory and the url for my fanfic blog is ccosettefauchelevent. ask questions, shout at me for making this so damn long, etc etc.
> 
> heads up: as many people are going to die in this as die in pacific rim. this will not have an "everybody lives" ending. you've been warned.


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